Acting as the final chapter of Persona 3 Reload, Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon (and adorable android) Aigis takes the lead in a new mission in Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: The Answer. This DLC content comes as part of the Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass and is a remake of The Answer from Persona 3 FES.
Due to the spoiler-heavy nature of Episode Aigis: The Answer, the following review does refer to the ending of Persona 3 Reload (and other versions of Persona 3). If you’ve yet to play it and managed to remain spoiler-free, I recommend playing Persona 3 Reload before reading this review.
After The End
While the end of Persona 3’s main story did leave events a little ambiguous, Episode Aigis: The Answer immediately makes it clear that Persona 3’s protagonist (often listed by developer Atlus as Makoto Yuki) never woke up after falling asleep at the end. This comes as a shock to the rest of the team and they’re still dealing with their grief.
They’re about to turn in their Evokers and move on from S.E.E.S. when suddenly something happens at midnight. They find themselves trapped in the dorm, with the same day repeating. In addition, they find themselves attacked by Metis, an android who looks similar to Aigis and who calls Aigis her older sister. This is a mystery, as Aigis is meant to be the last of her kind.
Along the way, Aigis suddenly awakens the power of the Wild Card and she summons Makoto’s Persona. They find out that time and space are being distorted by an area called the Abyss of Time, and they venture in with Metis to explore and find out what’s happening.
For much of its approximately 20-hour runtime, Episode Aigis: The Answer follows a format of clearing an area and then delving into an important moment from the past of one of the party members. There are also optional slice-of-life moments to unlock and some other character interactions along the way.
The glimpses into the past were appreciated, if fairly short. I enjoyed seeing more of the characters’ backstories and it did in some cases give more insight into why certain personality traits developed. Some were quite emotional moments and/or provided important context, though I didn’t feel that way about all of them.
I enjoyed seeing some of the other moments too. Aigis takes over Makoto’s role as the party leader. While there are no social links in Episode Aigis, she does spend more personal moments with the others. Much like Makoto does in the main game, there are scenes where she drinks coffee or watches DVDs with the others. There were also times where discussions with characters had them learn more about themselves, leading to new powers. The interactions with Metis were some of my favorites, as she has a rather obsessive love for her sister and acts quite childish about it at times, leading to some humorous moments. At one point she asked if she or Koromaru was more helpful—of course, I chose Koromaru since he’s a good boy and she just tried to kill everyone. She got a little pouty about it.
In terms of the main plot, hints about what’s happening and Metis’s nature are dropped along the way. One particular point is glaringly obvious about a certain connection, if not the details. The vast majority of the main plot progression only really happens at the end though. The ending is a lot stronger than everything that comes before it, even if I enjoyed it all. It adds a lot to the overall story, feeling like a much more definitive ending to Persona 3. There was one plot point that I did feel was wildly out of character, but the stakes were extremely high and it could be justified by their grief.
Diving into the Abyss
Episode Aigis: The Answer is a remake of The Answer from Persona 3 FES, which has a reputation for being a difficulty spike over much of the main game while being more repetitious due to being more driven by its dungeon crawl. It has its fans, but some players found this tedious to deal with. Luckily, some adjustments have been made in this modern remake which should help to resolve these complaints.
The general format is to complete an area filled with several randomized floors, until reaching stronger enemies on specific floors that act as mini-bosses. It’s similar enough to Tartarus from Persona 3 Reload in most ways. On completing an area, you get to see someone’s memories, then you move on to the next area. In many cases, the halfway point contains items to unlock optional story scenes back at the dorm.
While Episode Aigis: The Answer is certainly much more focused on battles and clearing floors than the main game, the story scenes do provide relatively frequent breaks. On top of that, it’s possible to exit the Abyss of Time relatively easily. Unlike Tartarus, you can jump straight back to whatever the furthest floor you’ve been to is instead of only being able to jump to preset checkpoint floors. In fact, practically the only notable reason not to leave the Abyss of Time to go and restore your SP in the dorm or buy some items is that you’ll lose your current chain of Arcana cards. This isn’t a huge loss and each area has more floors than the last, so I tended to find myself jumping out every ten floors or so. Without the pressure of needing to be careful about days remaining like in the main game or any progress lost, it’s easy to do so.
On the topic of progress lost, everyone’s levels start at level 25. The only progress carried over from the main game is the Persona Compendium (which costs extra to summon from and isn’t available on the hardest difficulty) and the costumes unlocked (so Yukari was immediately in her maid costume again).
One new feature I did like was a change to the Monad Doors that appear with strong enemies on some levels. In Episode Aigis: The Answer, three doors appear next to each other. Each contains one battle, with the leftmost containing one wave of enemies, the middle containing two, and the right containing three. Rewards differed for these and they provide some important items, so it was a nice way to choose how difficult a challenge I wanted beyond just the difficulty selection (which comes in all the same difficulty options from the main game, unlike the original which only had one difficulty that was approximately equivalent to hard mode). Another new feature was being able to spend Twilight Fragments to copy cards. I didn’t use it often, but it was appreciated. Other than that, most other systems were functionally identical to those from the main game, such as the Reaper, Greedy Shadows, and the Great Clock.
It’s also worth noting battles are the same as the main game too, which makes this the first version of The Answer which allows you to pick all of your party’s actions (given the absence of The Answer from Persona 3 Portable). This can be less frustrating to manage compared to the original FES which only allowed you to set their general tactics and left them partially AI-controlled.
In the end, while there are certainly a lot of floors to clear in Episode Aigis: The Answer, it felt like it went by quickly. The little changes from the main game, convenience features, and breaks made it never feel like it was too much. And if you still want a challenge after completing it, there are some very difficult postgame battles to test yourself with.
Everyday’s Great At Your Junes!
While I imagine anyone reading this will be familiar with the audiovisual aspects of Persona 3 Reload generally, there are a few things to mention.
Episode Aigis: The Answer comes as part of the Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass. This also includes BGM sets for Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Reload. You can run around the Abyss of Time with the Junes’ supermarket theme playing if you really want to (or one of the other more thematically appropriate options). There are also some new tracks specific to Episode Aigis: The Answer too.
Several of the key story moments have been animated as well, with the same high level of quality found in the main game.
Verdict
Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: The Answer works brilliantly as an epilogue, bringing the story of Persona 3 Reload to a definitive conclusion. While the frequent battles and exploration may not be for everyone, the structure and gameplay make sure it never feels tedious.
PERSONA 3 RELOAD EPISODE AIGIS: THE ANSWER IS RECOMMENDED
If you have an itch for more Persona, you might want to check out our review of Persona 5 Tactica. If you’d like a different Sega JRPG, check out Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
Many thanks go to Sega for a PlayStation 5 review code for Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: The Answer.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
